Growing Super: Chapter 8

Jack’s special alloy sat in a large pan, just waiting to be used. Flipping the pan over, he slid the rectangular sheet of metal out of it. Before it could hit the ground he caught it with his hands, and lifted over to his work bench. He would need to start making the torso of the suit first, so that he could get everything to fold out from there.

The suit by itself wouldn’t do much but enhance his strength and provide protection from just about anything trying to hit him. The only thing certain about it was the power source – a bunch of tiny solar panels hooked up to a super battery. But Jack wanted to put some toys on his suit, and set about figuring out what ones.

A soft whisper told Jack that he wouldn’t be able to fly with his suit on, which confused him. Wouldn’t wearing the suit be like wearing another pair of clothes?

The suit will confine your powers, and supress them, it explained. Jack accepted this begrudgingly and put a jetpack on the list. An anti-gravity device to help lift heavy objects, shock gloves to stun his opponents, boots to function as normal shoes, and a static electricity generator for wall grabbing.

To build the things that he needed for the suit, Jack had to occasionally run through a new portal to the dump for the correct materials. The hardest one to build was the anti-gravity device, simply because he had to have it create a magnetic field stong enough to counteract gravity’s pull. It took a while to build it, and then a while after that to actually build one that could fit on his suit. The other devices were much easier to make, and didn’t take much time at all to size them for his suit. The design in his head told him how to fit all of them onto the torso once it was built, so he went about building that.

Jack needed to take some of the metal off of the main sheet, so – with a lot of effort – he managed to rend the right size piece with his power, the only thing that seemed able to affect the metal. Laying it next to the rest of the devices, Jack set about creating the synthetic muscle for the suit. It didn’t look much like muscle, but it did look like the beginnings of his battle suit. He floated the muscles into place and hooked them up to the battery. They would sit right next to Jack’s skin, so they didn’t need a frame. Now he could start on the rest of the body’s muscles, which would fold up onto his torso when not in use.

Making the synthetic muscle was the hardest job, mainly because Jack’s alloy was so hard to work with. Despite that, he still managed to finish making the muscles for the rest of the suit, excluding the head. For the limbs, the muscles had to be special because they needed to be able to fold up. Because of that the muscles were built differently than those of the torso. But they all floated into place easily, and connected well to the boots.

The boots were made of the same alloy, and hooked up to the rest of the suit. But the thing that was different about them is that they wouldn’t fold up onto the torso, so they needed to fit like normal shoes. Jack even went to the trouble of adding the normal padding to them so he wouldn’t be uncomfortable. The gloves, however, did fold with the rest of the suit. They fit like the rest of the suit, laying right on the skin.

The helmet would be the hard part. Jack would need to have it built in multiple parts, and then be able to fold together over his head. To do it, he made something almost like the synthetic muscle but wouldn’t enhance his strength much. Using that, he built the helmet part and then used the normal synthetic muscle for the neck. For the visor, he took some normal glass and melted some of his alloy into it. When it was finished, the visor had a slight orange tinge to it, and would fit right in with the rest of the suit. When the helmet folded down, the visor would stay in one piece and end up resting by his collar-bone.

Jack spent another hour or two touching up on it, adding the gadgets and hardware, before he stopped. Standing back to admire it, he could barely tell that the jetpack was even there, save for two small bumps on the back. Jack slid it on over his head and found that it fit much like a comfortable shirt, even if it was skin-tight. He slid the boots on over his sock covered feet and laughed. With the rubber soles that he added to the bottoms, they looked just like silver boots. He slapped his chest and his suit started to slide out. His legs started first, quickly followed by his arms. His helmet, however, didn’t start at all, not even after the rest of the suit was done.

But that was on purpose because sometimes the helmet will be unnecessary and just get in the way. Jack slapped his chest again and the helmet slid up into place, completing his suit. On the helmet’s visor, it showed the stats of the suit: battery life, the cooling system, the booster system, anti-gravity system… it even had wi-fi capabilities! Checking the rest of the functions, he found that he could environmentally seal his suit and he would have eighteen hours of oxygenated air. But it was still missing something, and Jack couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The portal opener. That’s what was missing. It would provide instant transportation from place to place and would save him the hassle of flying. He grabbed and slid it on his wrist, where it sat snugly.

Jack ran outside via his basement door to test out his suit and found that the sun was already setting over the Corelia skyline. He turned on his anti-gravity device and jumped up, flying high up into the air. His jetpack was next and Jack went soaring towards the heart of the city. His helmet showed his airspeed to be at five hundred miles per hour and increasing.

“Yeah!” Jack screamed out and pumped his fist, all while pushing his jetpack to go faster and faster. He reached he other side of the city in seconds, and turned around to go home. A suggested flight path showed up on his helmet when he asked it to show him his way home. He followed it and made his way home, slowing down as he got close. When he tried to land, he came in too fast and crashed, sliding for a second or two before stopping.

“Holy crap, that hurt!” Jack hissed through clenched teeth, dragging himself into a standing position. He hobbled into his basement and slapped his chest twice while unlatching his boots. Sliding them off of his feet, Jack laid down on the floor and let sleep take him.

5 comments on “Growing Super: Chapter 8”

“A soft whisper told Jack that he wouldn’t be able to fly with his suit on, so he put a jetpack on the list.”

So, are you just regretting gibing Jack the power of flight or something? You seem to be continuously downplaying the ability, overshadowing it, and you even have him thinking of it as “the hassle of flying”.

This makes me really sad, as the fact that he had a power in addition to the tech was really cool. I figured most tech guys wouldn’t be able to fly, and that would be his advantage over them. Instead, you make it where his ability to fly is useless while in armor, and instead every tech guy can likely fly just by making jet packs.

Well, for right now, his flying is basically useless. He’s not stronger or faster than any other supers, he’s only a bit less vulnerable than a civilian, and he wouldn’t really be able to fight very well from afar. Later on his suit will be different, and he won’t need the jetpack. In his next week of school, however, he will learn to appreciate his flight more.

I read it when it hits the recent posts. But I’m not sure I’m a good data point. I’m reading everything on this site, plus three other novels at all times, because I apparently think it’s a good idea to read 17 stories concurrently. At that rate, I can afford to be patient. 😉